On its website, Europe versus Facebook shows how to request a copy of your personal data on the social network (see how Reddit overwhelmed Facebook with data requests). It explains that because of Ireland's 1988 Data Protection Act (DPA), Facebook has to send you your data on a CD within 40 days of a request.

When I followed up with the social networking giant, I learned that Facebook believes it gave everything to Schrems that it had to by law. The company argues that it is doing everything it legally can to respond to Schrems requests.

"Facebook has sent over 1,000 pages of data to Mr Schrems in response to his subject access request and we believe that this meets the requirements of EU data protection law," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "It is therefore nonsense to say that we are not willing to provide him with his personal data. Mr Schrems was not happy with all of this data that we provided to him and has asked for a range of additional data items. We replied to him to explain fully the relevant provisions in Irish data protection law that place some reasonable limits on the data that has to be provided. We are cooperating fully with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner who will come to a view on Mr Schrems' complaint in due course."

His office decided to investigate the company after Europe versus Facebook's 22 complaints were covered repeatedly in the media. It will take quite a while for the Irish Data Protection Commissioner to go through all of the complaints, but it appears that Facebook remains confident he will not find any problems.